Women s Basketball World Cup promotion team is released: The United States leads 5 teams to lock in advance, China fails to advance directly

The 2025 Women's Basketball African Cup officially came to an end, accompanied by the Nigerian Women's Basketball Team defeating Mali 78-64, successfully winning the African Cup championship and successfully secured a place in the World Cup next year. As of now, in addition to Nigeria, there are also the United States, Belgium, Australia and host Germany. These five teams have secured their place in the 2026 World Cup in advance. The Chinese women's basketball team failed to win the Asian Cup and missed the opportunity to go directly to next year's World Cup. In March next year, the Chinese team will participate in the World Cup qualifiers to compete for the World Cup qualification.

According to the rules of the FIBA, teams that win the 2025 InterContinental Cup will automatically be eligible for next year's World Cup. As the overlord of African basketball, Nigeria's winning journey this time is not very difficult. They won 2 wins and 0 losses in the group stage, in the quarter-finals and semi-finals, and easily defeated their opponents, and reached the finals with a record of 4 wins and 0 losses. Mali's record is the same as Nigeria. Before the final, they also achieved a record of 4 wins and 0 losses. However, in the final, Nigeria was even better and eventually defeated its opponent with a 14-point advantage and successfully won the African Cup championship.

With the release of the African champions, all major Intercontinental Cup champions in 2025 have been produced. Among them, the American Cup champion is the United States, the European Cup champion is Belgium, and the Asian Cup champion is Australia. They will be directly qualified for next year's World Cup, just like Nigeria. And the host German team, they will also automatically advance. At present, there are 5 teams that have advanced to the World Cup, and the remaining 11 places will be generated after 16 places in the World Cup main competition.

At present, the list of participants in the 2025 Women's Basketball World Cup qualifiers has also been officially launched. There will be 24 teams participating, including the United States, Australia, Germany, Belgium and Nigeria. Although they have qualified for the World Cup, they still need to participate in the World Cup qualifiers. In other words, among the top 24 in the World Cup, the remaining 19 teams compete for 11 seats. As the overlord of Asian basketball, the pressure on the Chinese team to compete for the World Cup should not be very high. After all, except for top teams such as the United States, Belgium, and Australia, only a few teams that can pose a threat to the Chinese team are France, Spain, and Japan.

According to the arrangement of the competition system, the Women's Basketball World Cup qualifiers will be held in March next year, and the World Cup qualifiers will be drawn in groups, which is likely to be held at the end of this year. The 24 participating teams will be divided into 4 competition areas, with 6 teams in each competition area. Excluding 5 teams that have advanced, they will compete for all the remaining seats in the World Cup. In order to prepare for the World Cup qualifiers in March next year, the Chinese women's basketball team has also formulated a corresponding response plan. According to Gong Luming, after the Asian Cup, the Chinese women's basketball team will gather for training again from August to October.

Attachment: Top 24 list of the 2026 Women's Basketball World Cup qualifiers

6 teams in Asia: Australia (champion), Japan (runner-up), China (third-up), South Korea, New Zealand, Philippines

5 teams in Europe: Belgium (champion), Spain (runner-up), Italy (third-up), France, Turkey

6 teams in America: United States (champion), Brazil (runner-up), Canada (third-up), Argentina, Colombia, Puerto Rico

4 teams in Africa: Nigeria (champion), Mali (runner-up), South Sudan (third-up), Senegal

World Cup qualifiers qualifiers 2 championships: Czech Republic, Hungary

Host: Germany